that Form of Government 't is answered He doth and may like it in Holland but they must shew some Instances that his Zeal for a Common-wealth is as hot and as blind as King James's for Popery before they can prove him so desperate a Foe to his own Interest as to uncrown himself and make himself the People's Vassal when he is and may be their Gracious Lord. If it be urged that it is a dangerous Precedent for future Kings to allow the People a Liberty to take away their Princes Right and set up another on Pretence of Misgovernment The Reply is the late King was the occasion of this Precedent by first attempting to alter the whole frame of our Laws Government and Religion and then Deserting us And if it be an ill Precedent for the safety of Princes that the Advantage was taken it was however necessary to take it for the Safety of the People for whose good Heaven made Kings Sure I am there are as dreadful Consequences of Arbitrary Tyranny as there are of Rebellion witness the Misery and Slavery of the poor French at this Day and it seems as necessary there should be some Precedents to deter Princes from abusing their Power as well as to restrain the People from abusing their Liberty For both Tyranny and Rebellion are great Sins and of most mischievous Consequence Wherefore this unexpected Example may make our Kings more Just and more apt to Rule by Law but it can never hurt the Monarchy it self or countenance a Rebellion while a King is in the Throne that will stay to hear and redress his Peoples Grievances which will never be denied by the present or any other good King The last Pretence is the most surprising of all That there is no way to preserve the Church of England no nor the Protestant Religion but by restoring the late King who its said in his Declaration promises this as liberally as he did at his first Accession to the Throne If Mankind were not the oddest part of the Creation one would wonder how 't is possible for Protestants to believe that the Wolves design good to the Sheep When the late King was here he involved himself in infinite Mischiefs and did the most odious things in the World to destroy the Protestant Religion and especially to ruin the Church of England and hath he given any Evidence of changing his Temper his Principles his Zeal or his Methods He shewed in Ireland a greater spite to Protestants than ever he hath lived in France ever since where he hath seen how much it tends to advance his dear absolute Power to Dragoon all Men into the Kings Religion his only Motives to draw in this Frenchify'd Pope to lend him Mony to invade us is by convincing him he lost all by his Zeal to restore Popery and by engaging he will use his Power if he can regain it only to promote the Catholick Interest His other Ally the French-Persecutor cannot be endeared by any better Interest till the Principal of the Sums Lent are repaid by poor England than by Assurance that he will make one Kingdom in the World as miserable by absolute Empire and forcing one Religion as France now is that his Barbarity Cruelty and Treachery may not be the infamous single Instance of such Proceedings his Promises to his Allies his Zeal his Principles and his Nature all engage him to destroy the Protestant Religion He attempted it when he was not half so deeply obliged and can we think he will not pursue it now 'T is next to Frenzy to think the Pope and King of France furnish him with Mony Ships Forces c. only to secure the Protestant Religion and Church of England he must be tyed in more than ordinary Bonds to endeavour the Ruin of both or no such Favours had been shewn by such a Pope and such a Persecutor It cannot be Ease to Roman Catholicks he desires They are more at Ease under King William than under any Protestant King ever since the Reformation It must therefore be the suppressing all other Religions and setting up that alone must engage Rome France and Lucifer in his Restauration As for his Promises to us in his Declaration alas he hath already given greater and stronger to the Pope and French King to the contrary and though his Interest and the Hopes that some will be so mad to believe him put him upon renewing these Promises to England yet his Consessor can soon resolve him which Promise is to be kept whether that pious Catholick Promise to the Holy Father and the Hector of that Cause or that extorted one to Hereticks Besides we should remember the Italian Proverb God forgive him who deceives me once but God forgive me if one Man deceives me twice No Prince in the World ever promised with more Solemnity than the late King to protect the Protestant Religion or the Church of England yet nothing is more clear than that he designed to gull us only not to oblige himself by this Protestation and the first thing he did was to break it as soon as he durst and can we be so distracted to believe him again He declared in Ireland that the Church of England stunk in his Nose and that he abhorred it He cannot truly love either any person of that Persuasion or any other Protestant he may flatter some of them to get into the Saddle but when they have mounted him he will ride over their Heads his own Friends of the Protestant Religion are very few and his Revenge on the far greater number who have opposed his Designs will out-weigh the Kindness of a few inconsiderable Hereticks who abetted his Interest and who will be told that it was not Sense of Duty but despair of obliging his Enemies that forced them into his Quarrel They had sufficient Experience after Monmouth's Rebellion suppressed only by the Church of England Men how little any Acts of those he counts Hereticks can oblige him his carriage in Ireland to the Loyal Protestants writ this in Capital Letters and it must be supposed they have drunk deep of Lethe who can forget all this But I pray what is it the Church of England wants or any other Protestant This King is as serious and sincere a Protestant and as true a Lover of that Interest as King James is a professed Enemy to it and why may not he be more likely to preserve the Religion he professes than the other to maintain that Religion which he vilely deserted and mortally hates The Church-Men say King William is too kind to Dissenters but hath he given them any other or more Liberty than King James did That King begun with Toleration and it was not for a new Prince in a troublous State of things to alter any thing of that Nature Besides at the same time the Dissenters do think the present King too kind to the established Church not considering that 't is the National Religion which he
May 25th 1692. Let this be Printed Nottingham THE PRETENCES OF THE French Invasion EXAMINED FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE PEOPLE of ENGLAND LONDON Printed for R. Clavel at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1692. A Catalogue of some Books lately Printed and Reprinted for Robert Clavel at the Peacock in S. Paul's Church-Yard THE State of the Protestants of Ireland under the late King James's Government in which their Carriage towards him is justified and the absolute Necessity of their Endeavouring to be freed from his Government and of submitting to their present Majesties is demonstrated Writ by Bishop King Licensed by the Right Honourable the Earl of Nottingham The Third Edition with Additions The Frauds of the Romish Monks and Priests set forth in Eight Letters lately Written by a Gentleman in his Journey into Italy The Third Edition very fairly printed Observations on a Journey to Naples wherein the Frauds of Romish Monks and Priests are farther discover'd By the Author of the former Book Forms of Private Devotions for every Day in the Week by a Method agreeable to the Liturgy with Occasional Prayers and an Office for the Holy Communion and for the time of Sickness L. Annaei Flori Rerum Romanarum Epitome interpretatione Notis illustravit Anna Tanaquilli Fabri Filia Jessu Christianismi Regis in usum Serenissime Delphini In a large 8vo curiously Printed LEVSDEN's Greek Testament The Fifth Edition A Defence of Pluralities or holding two Benefices with Cure of Souls as it is now practised in the Church of England THE PRETENCES OF THE French Invasion EXAMINED For the Information of the People of England THat the Sword hath thus long been kept from destroying among us is a Blessing which we cannot sufficiently understand unless we consider the woful Desolation it hath made in all Neighbouring Nations Nor are they at all sensible how much they owe to God and their Majesties for keeping us in Peace who give the least Encouragement to this intended Descent which must turn our Land into an Aceldama and will make such woful Havock of our Lives and Fortunes while one party fights for Safety and the other for Revenge that no Age can parallel the horrid Consequences of such a Civil War as this will prove And if Papists only blinded by Zeal for their Religion and blown up with hopes of absolute Empire encouraged this bloody design it would be no Wonder and could have no Success considering the general Aversion of the People to them and the fresh Instances of their Insolence and Cruelty But alas It appears that many who call themselves Protestants are engaged in this fatal Conspiracy against their Religion and their Native-Country which is so prodigious and amazing that a Man would wonder who hath bewitched these foolish Galatians to push on their own and the Churches Ruin And every one must be inquisitive into the specious pretences by which these Men are induced to become their own Executioners Now the pretended Motives are these 1. Repairing the Injury done to the late King 2. Delivering us from the Oppressions we suffer under the present King 3. Setling the Government upon its old Basis. 4. Securing the Protestant Religion for all future Ages Now it becomes every true English Protestant to examine these Pretences very well before he venture on a thing of so evil Appearance and dangerous Consequence as is the joyning with these Invaders First It is pretended the late King was unjustly deprived of his Birth-right by his Subjects who by Nature and Oaths were bound to defend him in the Possession of it And now that he comes to demand his own all that ever were his Subjects must either assist or at least not oppose him But let it be considered that all the late Kings Sufferings were owing to and caused by the Counsels of his Popish-Priests and the Bigots of that Persuasion Protestants were not the Aggressors he might have kept his Possession to this day undisturbed if he had not made such open and bold Attempts upon our Laws our Religion and Properties so that he was the first and only Cause of his own Sufferings and why should Millions be involved in Blood and Ruin who are perfectly Innocent of doing this Injury No free Nation did ever bear more or greater Injuries or endure such Violences so long or so patiently as we did And when some Stop was to be put to the final Ruin of our Liberties and Religion it was done at first by Petitions and Complaints and when they were despised none but defensive Arms were taken up by some few and by a Foreign Prince only to cover their Heads while the Grievances were fairly redressed not to take away his Rights but to secure our own Nor did the Prince of Orange or these Gentlemen devest or deprive him of his Throne but owned his Right by offering a Treaty during the continuance of which he disbanded his Army dissolved his Government and as much as in him lay attempted to desert the Throne and seek Aids from an Enemies Country which might secure him against redressing any Grievances and enable him to be revenged upon the injured Complainers We did not make the Throne vacant but the late Archbishop and other Peers at Guildhall believed he had left it void or else they would not without his Consent have seized on the Administration of the Government secured his Chancellor taken possession of the Tower and offered the Exercise of the Supream-Power to the Prince of Orange He left us in Anarchy and we provided for our selves in the best manner such a Juncture would allow I will not enquire now whether these Subjects who are so Zealous for his Return were not bound to do more than they did to keep him in his Throne while he had it their Conscience then permitted them to look on and let him sink while his Security had been far more easily compassed But they who have now these unseasonable Pangs of their old Loyalty must consider that a Man may leave his Right when he pleaseth but may not take it again at his pleasure especially not by Force and this most especially as to Soveraign Power Some Body must govern when he would not the next undoubted Heir in an Hereditary Monarchy must and whoever doth govern in Chief in this Nation must be King by our Constitution and must have Power sufficient to protect himself and the Nation against all their Enemies and that cannot be without Swearing new Allegiance Now when a King and Queen are declared submitted to and owned by Oaths and all other Methods required in such Case The King is not at liberty to give up his own Power and the Protection of us nor are the People free to joyn with him that deserted them or to venture their Necks or their Countries Ruin to restore him I dare say that the French King will not grant that the Citizens of those Cities who were Subjects to Spain or the Emperour and bound
by Oath to those Princes but have now submitted to him and sworn new Allegiance are obliged to venture their Lives and Fortunes by vertue of their old Oaths to restore those Cities to their former Masters doubtless he would solve their Scruples with a Halter if he found they attempted it Besides the Injuries as they are called done to the late King by his own Acts if they were capable of Reparation must not be repaired with the injuring yea ruining many thousand innocent Persons who must unavoidably lose their Lives and be undone in their Estates by his returning by Force The present King and his Army are bound by Oaths Duty and Interest to oppose him so are all now protected by him and who have sworn Allegiance to him and 't is certain all that are not perjur'd Hypocrites will do so And then what Englishmans Bowels must not Bleed to consider what Murthers Burning Plundering and Destruction he brings upon his Native-Country who encourages the Aggressors If he have any Kindness for us whom he calls his Subjects he would rather sit quietly under his single Injuries than wish or however attempt to be restored by Blood and an Universal Ruin And if he have no Pity for us why should we be so concerned for him as to Sacrifice our Lives and Fortunes to his Revenge He went away while a Treaty was on Foot and nothing but a Treaty can restore him fairly which he never yet offered We did not force him to go away in Disguise and if he will force himself upon us again by French Dragoons and Irish Cut-Throats we may and must Oppose him for our Allegiance is now transferred to another Finally there is no Injury to any but himself and those who run into Voluntary Exile with him by his being out of the Possession the Monarchy the Law the Church and Property are all in better Estate than in his time and all these with innumerable private Persons must be irreparably injured by his Return in an Hostile manner So that there can be no reason to redress the sufferings he ows to his own Faults by so many publick and private Injuries If it be pleaded that he who was born to a Kingdom really wants Subsistance I reply that if he would seek the Peace of Christendom and of his late Subjects he might by a fair Treaty set on foot not only restore the Exiles but have a sufficient and honourable Maintenance from this Government but while the War he makes upon it puts us to so great Expence he cannot expect it nor imagin we should give him a Supply to enable him to ruin us The Second Pretence why we should assist towards his Restauration is to deliver our selves from the Oppression we suffer under the present King And to set off this with a better Gloss the late Reign is magnified by the Jesuits and their Tools and this blackned Freedom from Taxes then is made a rare Instance of his Gentleness and the present Impositions heightned with all the Rhetorick imaginable to represent this King as an Oppressor The flourishing of Trade then is extolled the decay of it now odiously insinuated and great hopes are given of Golden Days upon the Return of James the Just he is to make us all happy Now to answer this there is no need to make a Satyr on that Reign or a Panegyrick on this that is so well remembred and this so fully known that all unprejudiced People see on which side the Truth lies But 't is great Pity they who have the Wit to invent or urge this Plea have not a Memory to remind them that none complained more of the Danger of Law and Religion of our Lives and Fortunes in that Reign than many who have this high Opinion of it now the Cruel Severities in the West the High Commission turning out of Office all good Protestants attempting to reverse all the Penal Laws putting unqualified Men into all Places of Trust Profit and Power excluding the Fellows of Magdalen and putting in Papists with the Imprisonment and Trial of the Bishops were thought Oppressions then but now all these are buried in Oblivion and those Taxes which the late King and his Ally of France with their Abettors alone make necessary to this Frugal Prince these are our only Grievance and this Kings unpardonable Crime The late King had one Tax and might yea would have had more for the glorious Design of enslaving his Subjects if he could have got a Parliament to his Purpose which he vigorously endeavoured and it was because he was sure he must satisfie his People in their just Complaints when ever he asked a Supply that he durst not ask it of a freely chosen Parliament yet then we were in Peace with all Nations and now he hath intangled us in a War with the worst Enemy in Europe Assessments then were not needed but to hasten our Ruin now they are absolutely necessary to our Safeâ—y and made so by him and his complaining Friends Yet still what Grievances are these Taxes in comparison of what is laid on the French Slaves into whose Condition we were intended to be brought There is a vast difference between losing our Property for ever and paying some part of our Profits to secure the rest and our Inheritances to our Posterity as well as our Selves Besides should we not leap out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire if to avoid tolerable Payments we should rashly bring a fatal War to our Doors that must last till more than one half of the Nation be destroyed and the rest utterly and almost irrecoverably impoverished This I am sure is voluntarily to change our Whips for Scorpions We have paid as much formerly for assisting France to ruine Europe and maintain Vice at Home as now serves to deliver Europe and secure our Native Country and Religion from utter Destruction Nor are the Sums considerable reckoning the Abatement of Chimney-Mony which we have paid to this Government no Country in Europe hath paid so little in proportion to our Wealth these last Three Years of War And if the late King return England must pay all the Sums borrowed of France to maintain him abroad to keep Ireland and to discharge the Forces that come to thrust him on us and must stay to compleat the happy Design of setting up Popery and Slavery the natural consequences of his Restauration and 't is well if Arrears of Chimney-Mony and other publick Monies be not called for to carry on so glorious a Work So that if England rebel against the present King to avoid the Burthens now upon them they expose themselves to Ten times greater Taxes for many Years and it can end in nothing but the utter Impoverishing of the whole Nation especially the Protestant part of it who by their Poverty will become a more easie Prey As for Trade the Decay of it began in the late King's time and it is the War which he and France have engaged us
in that still keeps it at a low Ebb so that for the late King's Friends to expose the present Government for this is like a Conjurers complaining of the Storms he raises That ingenious History of Bishop King 's of the Estate of the Protestants in Ireland under King James makes it out that the late King feared and hated the increase of Trade which made him use all means to hinder it and all the World fees that no Absolute Monarch as he affects to be likes that his Subjects should grow rich by Trade But our present King so soon as he can have Peace will make it his first Care to promote Trade here as he did in the Country he came from and even in the difficult times he had Trade hath been a great part of his and his Parliaments Care Finally if Men can remember the times that are so lately past when Law and Right was only the King's Pleasure dictated by Mercenary Judges when no Party but the Papists flourished when a general Consternation had stopt all Business they cannot hope to be happy by his Return who caused all these Miseries And they must expect now he hath more perfectly Learned the French Methods of making a King the greatest of Monarchs by making his Subjects the vilest of Slaves that he will practise it with greater Industry and Application than ever to put it eternally out of his Subjects Power to protect themselves again For oppressing his People which was but expedient before will now be thought absolutely necessary So that nothing can be more improbable not to say impossible than for England to be happy under him that attempted to make her Miserable without any provocation and must return with the same Principles and Designs the same Counsellors and Interests he had before and with all the addition that Revenge Hatred and Fear can make to an angry and implacable Mind But it may be said his Dear-bought Experience of the ill success of these Methods will make him rule more moderately if he be restored To which I reply Coelum non Animum mutat The fore-cited Book of Bishop King's demonstrates that after he had lost England and Scotland and a great part of Ireland upon his Return thither from France he was more Arbitrary and hard to his Protestant Obedient Subjects than ever he had been before even though it was against his visible Interest and tended to disgust all the Protestants who would have served him there His declaring himself Papist at first here and all his Actions since shew that he prefers his Will and an obstinate pursuing his own Methods far above his true Interest whence it follows that we vainly expect from one of his Temper that either his past Experience or his future Interest should teach him Moderation any longer than till he hath Power to oppress us And if he should by a Thousand Promises or Oaths engage to rule by Law his frequent breach of both hath given us no reason to trust him and the Religion he professes can so easily dispence with both that neither of them give us any security from that sort of Obligations The Interests of Popery and France require he should be Absolute and his Nature spurs him on to it and nothing but Fear can for a Moment restrain him from being so What a shadow of a Dream then must this be of Protestant Subjects being happy under a bigotted Popish Prince of such a Temper Thirdly Whereas 't is said we have changed our old Hereditary Monarchy into one meerly Elective and by degrees shall bring it to a Common-wealth nor can any thing prevent this which will be of Fatal consequence to the Church but our restoring the late King I answer the Position is false and the Consequence a meer Sham the Government of England always was and ever must be Monarchical that Twelve Years when it was endeavoured to make it otherwise convinced all Men that all Projects to the contrary must come to nothing As for this Revolution 't is not likely a Parliament which made an Entail of the Crown in a Lineal Succession should be for setting up a Common-wealth or altering the Hereditary Monarchy If it be alledged there was a great Breach as to the Person of the Reigning King 't is replyed he himself made it and they did not make but find the Throne void And there have been greater Breaches since the Conquest as to the true Lineal Succession and laying aside yea deposing the Reigning King and setting up his Son or a Remoter Person which indeed was an Injury to the Kings so Deposed but still the Monarchy was called and continued to be Hereditary In our case the King deserted us yea left us without any Government but we applied to his next certain Heir with whom at her Request and for our Safety and hers by general consent a Title was given to her Husband and our Deliverer but this only for Life though he be much nearer in Blood to the Right of Succession than either Henry the Fourth or Henry the Seventh successively made Kings of England And the saving the Succession to the Princess of Denmark and her Heirs shews how far that Parliament was from designing any such thing as a Common-wealth We see Philip of Spain who had no Title to be King of England but by his Marriage with Queen Mary was made King at her Request and in her Right but he had not merited so much as our King and therefore his Title was to cease at her Death As for the Prince of Wales there are so clear Indications of his Birth being an Imposture and the Design of forming that Project is so known to be Revenge on the Princesses for adhering to their Religion and to get more time to force Popery and Slavery upon us yea his Health and Strength make it so unlikely he should proceed from such crazy Parents that till the Parties concerned prove the Affirmative by better Witnesses and clearer Evidence and the People of England in Parliament own him for the Heir we need not go about the unreasonable Task of proving a Negative Wherefore since the breach in the Succession was the late King 's own Act and only concerns his Person and a supposed unknown Heir we are not to answer for that and considering the hurry his unexpected Desertion put all things in and the absolute necessity of a speedy Settlement the Friends of the old English Monarchy have just cause to rejoyce it was made so near the old Foundation with a small and only Temporary Variation from it which was also absolutely necessary in that Juncture of Affairs And 't is evident that there are many of the best Quality and Interest who hate the notion of a Common-wealth in England and love Monarchy as well as any of the late King's Abettors who freely consented and firmly adhere to this Establishment If it be objected that King William was bred up in a Common-wealth and inclines to
found and keeps in possession of all its Rights as his Duty and Oath oblige him yet so as the Dissenters have Ease and every thing but Empire which from a prudent King of England they can never expect being not only a less part of the Nation but so divided among themselves that nothing can please all parties of them and therefore freedom to Worship in their several ways is all the Favour they can be capable of in the best times and so they are most unreasonable to hope for more now Besides let it be considered that our King is not only the Head and Protector of the Protestants of England but of all the Reformed Churches in Europe And the French King the main Wheel in this designed Restauration is so mortal an Enemy to the whole Reformation that he desperately weakned himself and banished 30000 Families of useful Subjects only to root the whole Profession out of his own Dominions And now can any rationally pretend this present King will destroy the English Church or the French-Persecutor and his Client the late King of England uphold it My dear Brethren and Country-men do not so infamously abuse your selves to believe so incredible a Fiction so manifest a Cheat Alas all these good words are only to lull you asleep till you at the peril of your Necks get him Power enough to Extirpate you and your Religion also I doubt not but for a while he would maintain the established Church and renew his Indulgence because he can get Footing no other way but it is easie to foresee how short-liv'd all these Sham-Favours will be They spring from Fear and desire of Opportunity to be revenged and so soon as ever the Fear ceases and that Opportunity comes he will most certainly kick down the Ladder by which he ascended and pull off the Mask appearing what he is in his Nature and Principles and not what his Necessities have made him seem to be so that if this Disguise be credited the persons imposed on will and must pay for their Credulity with the woful price of helping to destroy the most pure and flourishing Church in the World In assisting to re-instate him and fighting for him they fight against their own Religion which the Primitive Christians for all their Heroick Loyalty would not do and which no Man ought to do either for Interest or Revenge For my part I think true Religion so far above all worldly Concerns and the Preservation of it so principal an advantage of Government that the Prince who will certainly Suppress that must be more intolerable than he that would take away my Liberty Estate or my Life and it must be a damnable Sin in me to assist him in it or put him into a Capacity to do it No Oath or Allegiance can bind me to this it may oblige me to suffer but not to act for such a design Wherefore for Shame let his Irish and English Popish Subjects alone carry on this impious Design who can only hope for Advantage by his Restauration and who are only bound in Conscience to help him Neuter we must stand at least and that will suffice to shew how contemptible a party that is which must be set up on the Nations Ruin and how impossible it is for him to cut down the Protestant Religion in England without borrowing a handle from the Tree he would fell Take warning by what is past and what must be the inevitable Consequence of your deserting this King or assisting the late Prince even the Ruin of this most famous Church of England and the endangering the whole Estate of Protestantism through all Europe In vain will you complain of this Consequence when it is too late to remedy it your Guilt Shame and Sorrow will then only remain for having had a hand in so deplorable a Mischief For my part I have delivered my own Soul and given you fair warning God of his infinite Mercy open your Eyes in time and grant you a right Judgment in this and in all things FINIS